975*7l65 
GBPBab 


Barton,  Wi  M  lam  E 

Abraham  Lincoln  &  the  American 
idea  I 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

AND  THE  AMERICAN  IDEAL 


By 
WILLIAM  E.  BARTON,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

AND  THE  AMERICAN  IDEAL 

By 
WILLIAM  E.  BARTON,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  of  Oak  Park,  Illinois. 

Author  of  "The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  "The  Paternity 

of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  etc. 


A  Sennon 

Broadcast  by  Radio  from  the  Westinghouse  Station  and  the  Platform  of  Orchestra 

Hall,  Chicago,  Sunday,  February  11,  1923,  and  received  at  the  Radio 

Station  of  the  Casper  Daily  Tribune. 


m 


Published  By  Printed  By 

Tiie  Casper  Daily  Tribune         The   Commercial  Printing   Co. 
CASPER,   WYOMING 


G-BRPaJt- 


PREFACE 


The  Casper  Daily  Tribune  takes  pleasure  in  presenting  to 
its  friends  this  reprint  from  its  columns  of  what  may  be  the 
first  sermon  ever  transmitted  by  radio  and  received  at  a 
station  at  a  long  distance  from  the  point  at  which  the  ser- 
mon was  delivered. 

The  preacher,  Dr.  William  E.  Barton,  is  Pastor  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  of  Oak  Park,  the  largest 
church  of  that  communion  in  Chicago  and  its  suburbs.  He 
is  Moderator  of  the  National  Council  of  the  Congregational 
Churches  in  the  United  States.  He  is  also  the  foremost  liv- 
ing authority  on  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  His  books 
"The  Soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  "The  Paternity  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,"  etc.,  are  among  the  undisputed  authorities  on 
the  life  and  character  of  the  great  President. 

This  sermon  was  twice  broadcast  on  the  same  day.  It 
was  first  sent  out  from  the  Westinghouse  Station  in  Chicago 
at  2 :30  on  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  February  11,  and  in  the 
evening  it  Avas  delivered  before  a  large  audience  in  Orches- 
tra Hall,  in  Chicago,  and  this  delivery  was  broadcast 
from  the  Orchestra  Hall  Station.  How  many  scores  of 
thousands  of  people  listened  to  it  can  only  be  conjectured. 
The  Casper  Daily  Tribune,  at  its  station,  the  largest  in 
Wyoming,  received  it  at  both  deliveries,  and  printed  it  in  its 
editions  for  the  following  morning.  It  has  pleasure  in  pre- 
senting a  limited  number  of  copies  in  this  pamphlet  form, 
and  has  what  it  counts  reasonable  pride  in  what  may  be  an 
achievement  somewhat  different  from  any  that  has  been  at- 
tained before. 

THE  PUBLISHERS. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnamOObart 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN    AND    THE    AMERICAN    IDEAL. 


"And  their  prince  shall  be  of  themselves,  and  their  ruler 
shall  proceed  from  the  midst  of  them;  and  I  will  cause  him  to 
draw  near,  and  he  shall  approach  unto  me;  for  who  is  he  that 
hath  had  boldness  to  approach  unto  me?  saith  Jehovah.  And 
ye  shall  be  my  people,  and  I  will  be  your  God." — Jeremiah 
30:21-22. 

**That  (1)  The  people  are  sovereign;  (2)  the  majority  may 
rightfully  exercise  the  sovereignty  of  the  people;  (3)  the  pro- 
letariat is  a  majority  of  the  people;  (4)  therefore  the  prole- 
tariat is  sovereign.  This  means  that  the  proletariat  has  the 
sovereign  right  to  exercise  absolute  and  irresponsible  domina- 
tion over  the  lives,  liberties,  conduct  of  all  persons  and  all  so- 
cities." — Politics,  by  Frank  Exline. 

If  that  be  the  meaning  of  democracy,  it  is  as  certainly 
doomed  as  is  the  divine  right  of  kings. 


This  is  the  promise  of  God  to  a  people  emancipated  from 
the  rule  of  kings,  and  acknowledging  the  sovt3reignty  of  God, 
expressed  through  the  will  of  the  people.  The  people  shall 
raise  up  their  own  rulers,  such  is  the  promise,  and  these 
chosen  men,  representatives  at  once  of  God  and  of  the  peo 
pie,  shall  have  nearer  access  to  God  than  kings  have  dared 
to  assume. 

Jeremiah  wrote  these  words  during  the  Babylonian  exile. 
One  king  of  Judah,  Jehoahaz,  son  of  Josiali,  was  a  captive 
in  Egypt;  another,  Jehoiachin,  a  lad  of  eighteen  years,  had 
been  carried  away  with  his  mother  as  a  captive  to  Babylon ; 
another,  Zedekiah,  a  poor  puppet,  was  reigning  in  Jeru- 
salem, a  vassal  of  the  Babylonian  king.  The  long  line  of 
Davidic  kings  had  raveled  out  into  three  rotten  strands,  and 
broken.  What  were  the  people  to  do  for  a  king?  For  the 
present,  they  could  do  nothing  but  accept  the  conditions  of 
their  exile  in  Babylon;  but  the  time  was  to  come  when  they 
would  raise  up  their  own  rulers,  governing  for  the  good  of 
the  people,  and  by  the  will  of  the  people;  and  these  were  to 
be  men  who  could  approach  unto  God.  Of  such  a  nation, 
Jehovah  would  gladly  be  the  God,  and  they  were  to  be  his 
people. 

There  is  a  popular  impression  that  the  self-governing 
principle  is  something  new  on  earth;  that  it  is  an  experi- 
ment almost  untried,  and  with  its  success  still  far  from  as- 


Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  American  Ideal 

sured.  It  is  believed  that  tlie  Bible  bases  its  teacliiiig  of 
God  and  of  human  society  upon  the  monarchical  principle. 
The  very  phraseology  of  both  Testaments  lends  color  to  this 
view.  In  the  Old  Testament  we  have  the  Kingdom  of  David 
continuing  for  five  hundred  years,  and  then  reappearing  as 
an  ideal  and  a  hope,  associated  even  then  with  the  coming 
of  Christ  and  the  dreams  of  mankind  for  the  future  of  the 
race.  For  hundreds  of  years  that  now  have  grown  to  thou- 
sands, kings  have  ruled  over  almost  the  whole  of  mankind. 
The  Calvinistic  theology,  which  underlies  the  teachings  of  a 
considerable  number  of  Protestant  churches,  is  based  upon 
the  absolute  sovereignty  of  God.  I  am  myself  a  Calvinist. 
I  am  not  the  kind  of  Calvinist  that  John  Calvin  was.  I  am 
the  kind  of  Calvinist  that  John  Calvin  would  be  if  he  were 
living  now.  John  Calvin  lived  in  an  age  of  kings,  but  he 
established  a  republic  in  Geneva.  He  believed  in  a  sover- 
eign God,  but  he  believed  in  the  authority  of  God  expressed 
in  the  will  of  an  intelligent  and  righteous  community.  If 
Calvin  were  living  now  he  would  be  as  fearless  and  forward- 
looking  and  constructive  a  thinker  as  he  was  in  his  own 
day.  He  still  would  believe  in  the  sovereignty  of  God,  but 
he  would  believe  in  that  sovereignty  expressed  through  a 
people  taught  to  do  the  will  of  God,  and  a  people  intelligent 
and  righteous  enough  to  administer  their  affairs  intelli- 
gently and  righteously. 

The  whole  government  of  God  is  from  within.  Gravita- 
tion is  not  imposed  upon  matter  from  without.  Oxygen  and 
hydrogen  combine  to  make  water,  not  by  external  pressure, 
but  by  reason  of  the  laws  inherent  in  their  own  being.  The 
God  who  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  crucibles  of  the  chemists  is 
a  God  who  governs  the  universe,  not  by  imposing  an  arbi 
trary  will  from  the  outside,  but  one  who  has  put  his  own 
life  into  the  very  constitution  of  chemical  substance  and 
processes. 

Every  snowflake  that  falls  down  from  the  skies  comes 
built  upon  a  plan  of  six;  every  apple  blossom  and  every  rose 
is  based  upon  a  plan  of  five;  every  lily  is  construed  upon  a 
plan  of  three;  every  diamond  and  every  Imnp  of  coal  is  or- 
dered upon  the  plan  of  four.  Now,  this  is  not  done  by 
stamping  the  snowflakes  in  a  press,  nor  by  angels  going 
about  in  the  night  and  pulling  off  a  petal  Avhere  there  are 
too  many  and  sticking  on  one  Avhere  there  are  too  few.   The 


By  William  E.  Barton,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


law  tliat  declares  that  every  apple  blossom  shall  have  five 
petals  was  inherent  in  the  very  seed  from  which  the  first 
apple  tree  grew.  The  snowf lakes,  shaped  as  they  are  in  con- 
formity with  a  single  basic  plan,  are  every  one  of  them  un- 
like every  other  one  in  the  carrying  out  of  that  plan.  In  all 
nature  the  law  of  God  is  written  within.  It  is  not  imposed 
from  without.  Gravitation  and  chemical  affinity  and  crys- 
tallization and  efflorescence  are  all  sections  in  the  bill  of 
rights  which  guarantees  that  the  kingdom  of  God  shall 
everywhere  be  administered  as  a  republic. 

It  has  taken  the  world  a  long  time  to  discover  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  really  a  republic  of  God.  When  we  go 
back  and  read  our  Old  Testament  we  find  Samuel  protesting 
against  the  establishment  of  a  monarchy.  When  we  come  to 
the  New  Testament  we  find  a  church  established  on  the  basis 
of  a  principle  in  harmony  with  that  of  Jeremiah,  which 
promises  that  God  Avill  put  His  law  into  the  hearts  of  His 
people,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  continued  necessity  for  arbi- 
trary government.  This  is  a  promise  of  a  people  suffi,ciently 
intelligent  and  well  disposed  to  be  capable  of  self-govern- 
ment. 

Upon  this  principle  the  government  of  America  was 
founded.  If  it  is  to  work  successfully,  America  must  raise 
up  her  own  leaders,  and  elevate  them  to  positions  of  power, 
and  must  trust  their  leadership  and  go  forward  with  them 
in  the  maintenance  of  a  durable  democracy. 

Abraham  Lincoln  rose  from  among  the  people.  No  leader 
of  a  nation  since  time  began  grew  out  of  roots  more  deeply 
sunk  in  the  common  soil  of  a  people's  life.  His  parents  were 
honest,  unassuming  and  virtuous  people.  They  had  neither 
wealth,  nor  learning,  nor  social  position.  From  them  he  in- 
herited nothing  which  seemed  to  give  promise  of  his  subse- 
quent elevation  to  influence  and  power.  If  we  were  to  read 
the  whole  content  of  recorded  history  in  search  of  the  names 
of  men  who  fulfilled  the  promise  of  Jeremiah,  we  should  not 
find  any  other  more  clearly  fulfilling  this  prediction  than 
Abraham  Lincoln.  This  prince  of  xlmerican  life  was  from 
the  people;  this  ruler  came  forth  from  the  midst  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  great  words  which  he  spoke  at  Gettysburg  were  of 
a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people. 
He  himself  was  of  the  people.  He  attained  to  his  position 
of  power  by  the  will  of  the  people.    He  exercised  the  prerog- 


Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  American  Ideal 

ative  of  government  for  the  people.  In  him  the  rest  of  the 
text  became  true,  namely,  that  in  his  righteous  and  un- 
selfish rulership  he  brought  the  people  into  closer  relation- 
ship with  God.  When  we  think  of  Abraham  Lincoln  we  are 
reminded  first  of  all  of  his  kinship  with  the  people,  and  then 
we  are  reminded  of  their  high  privilege  and  responsibility 
as  the  people  of  God. 

The  glory  of  a  nation  is  its  heritage  of  great  names. 
America  is  rich  in  her  list  of  noble  men,  who  laid  her  foun- 
dations and  established  the  main  lines  of  her  national  de- 
velopment. With  gratitude  we  remember  the  godly  men  of 
Plymouth  Eock — William  Brewster,  William  Bradford, 
Miles  Standish.  We  remember  the  founders  of  our  col- 
onies, the  gay  and  versatile  Captain  John  Smith,  the  seri- 
ous and  righteous  John  Winthrop,  and  William  Penn,  the 
bloodless  conqueror.  We  think  of  the  days  of  the  American 
Eevolution,  with  our  Patrick  Henry  and  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin and  Israel  Putnam  and  LightHorse  Harry  Lee  and 
George  Washington.  We  remember  the  leaders  of  America 
in  the  days  when  she  first  became  a  nation — John  Adams 
and  Thomas  Jefferson  and  Alexander  Hamilton.  We  think 
with  pride  of  the  pioneers  who  crossed  the  mountains  and 
carved  new  commonwealths  out  of  the  wilderness — George 
Kogers  Clark,  Eufus  Putnam,  Daniel  Boone,  David  Crock- 
ett, Kit  Carson  and  Sam  Houston.  We  recall  the  prowess 
of  the  mighty  triumvirate  in  the  days  that  preceded  the  war 
— Henry  Clay  and  John  C.  Calhoun  and  Daniel  Webster, 
and  with  them  such  giants  as  Andrew  Jackson  and  Thomas 
Hart  Benton,  who  pointed  toward  the  Pacific  Ocean  and 
said,  "This  way  lies  the  east."  And  we  shall  not  need  to  be 
reminded  of  the  galaxy  of  noted  names  that  came  into 
American  history  in  the  days  of  the  Civil  War.  From  the 
beginning  of  her  history  America  has  been  blessed  with 
great  leaders,  who  have  incarnated  her  spirit  and  fought  for 
her  ideals. 

But  among  all  the  great  men  whom  America  has  pro- 
duced, there  is  not  one  tliat  is  so  completely  and  distinctively 
American  as  Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  is  enough  for  most  men  that  they  faithfully  incorpo- 
rate in  their  life  the  spirit  of  their  o^vn  age.  It  is  enough 
to  ask  of  a  man,  ordinarily,  that  he  shall  be  true  to  the  best 

8 


Bij  William  E.  Barton,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


that  is  m  liis  own  time.  Abraham  Lincoln  did  this,  and  he 
was  a  man  of  his  own  period  and  epoch.  But  he  was  more 
than  this.  He  was  a  cross-section  of  American  life  from  its 
beginning  nntil  its  unification  at  tlie  end  of  a  great  war. 
He  was  an  epitome  of  America's  whole  life  and  history. 

Lincobi's  own  grandfather  was  killed  by  the  Indians ;  Lin- 
cobi's  father,  then  a  little  lad,  Avitnessed  the  savage  murder. 
The  future  President  heard  that  story  told  and  retold  a  hun 
dred  times  in  his  childhood,  until  he  must  almost  have 
seemed  to  himself  to  have  been  present.  His  childhood  was 
surrounded  by  the  solitude  of  the  vast  woods;  the  back- 
gromids  of  his  life  were  those  of  the  savage  and  unbroken 
wilderness.  He  emerged  from  the  woods  into  the  pioneer 
settlements  of  Gentryville  and  New  Salem.  He  spent  his 
professional  life  as  a  lawyer  in  county  seats  and  in  the 
capital  city  of  a  new  commonwealth.  His  way  out  into  the 
world  was  first  by  means  of  the  flat-boat  and  then  by  the 
stage-coach  and  then  by  the  railway.  And  so  he  came  at 
length  to  Washington,  where  he  lived  the  last  four  years  of 
his  life.  His  journey  was  not  simply  a  transition  from  the 
log  cabin  to  the  White  House;  it  was  an  orderly  evolution, 
which  carried  with  it,  step  by  step,  the  life  and  significance 
of  the  epoch  in  which  he  was  living.  At  each  stage  he  was 
a  part  of  the  civilization  which  he  exiDerienced.  He  was  not 
thrust  into  any  situation  from  above;  he  grew  up  from  a 
state  of  civilization  more  primitive  into  each  of  the  condi- 
tions in  which  he  successively  lived. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  Lincoln  lived  the  life  of  America 
from  its  crude  backwoods  beginnings  to  its  advanced  civili- 
zation. He  was  an  index  and  epitome  of  our  national  life. 
He  incarnated  our  spirit  all  the  way  from  the  cabin  in  the 
wilderness  to  the  seat  of  power  where  cross  the  high  roads 
of  the  Vvorld's  progress.  He  was  not  simply  a  man  who  had 
been  born  in  a  forest  cabin  and  had  lived  on  the  prairies  and 
who  went  to  make  his  home  in  the  White  House;  he  was  a 
man  who  had  lived  the  life  of  America  all  the  way  and  all 
the  time. 

Such  an  American  could  not  have  been  in  earlier  days; 
and  just  such  an  American,  in  the  externals  of  his  whole 
life,  could  hardly  be  today.  He  came  in  the  time  and  in 
the  way  that  made  it  possible  for  him  to  stand  as  the  fore- 


i) 


Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  American  Ideal 

most  representath^e  of  American  life  and  the  full  realiza- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  all  her  history.  He  was  more  than 
American;  he  is  America. 

The  time  is  approaching  for  a  just  estimate  of  the  char- 
acter of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Up  to  the  present  time  we  have 
been  too  near  to  him.  I  once  sailed  up  the  Columbia  River 
so  near  to  the  foot  of  Mount  Hood  that  I  could  not  see  the 
summit.  Even  so,  great  men  are  almost  lost  to  sight  amid 
the  foothills  of  their  contemporaries.  But  as  we  recede 
from  Abraham  Lincoln,  he  ceases  to  be  merely  one  of  the 
great  men  of  his  time.  The  foothills  flatten  and  are  lost  in 
the  horizon,  and  he  stands  as  the  summit  of  Mount  Hood 
stands,  isolated  and  radiant.  We  have  other  great  men,  but 
we  have  none  other  so  great  as  he.  Abraham  Lincoln  is 
the  first  and  greatest  of  all  the  great  men  whom  America 
has  given  to  the  world. 

The  name  of  Lincoln  means  opportunity.  It  suggests  at 
once  the  privilege  which  belongs  to  every  American  of  mak- 
ing of  himself  as  great  a  man  as  he  is  capable  of  making. 

The  name  of  Lincoln  spells  integrity.  It  stands  for  honor 
in  public  and  private  life.  It  means  patriotism  and  the  love 
of  humanity.     It  stands  for  loyalty  to  an  ideal. 

The  name  of  Lincoln  is  a  synonym  for  faith  in  the  right- 
eous rule  of  the  people.  It  stands  for  the  principle  which 
lies  at  the  root  of  our  faith  in  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment. That  principle  is  one  which  Lincoln  was  fond  of 
quoting  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  as  re 
gards  their  right  before  the  law,  all  men  are  created  equal, 
and  which  he  set  forth  in  his  closing  words  at  Gettysburg,  in 
his  confession  of  faith  in  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people  and  for  the  people. 

The  theory  of  democratic  government  as  often  held  is  thus 
stated  by  a  recent  author : 

It  i^  to  be  feared  that  something  like  this  is  what  many 
people  mean  when  they  talk  about  democracy.  But  if  this 
is  what  they  mean,  then  they  are  building  their  hopes  of 
durable  government  upon  the  sand.  Mob  rule  is  as  danger- 
ous a  form  of  despotism  as  any  on  earth.  A  single  tyrant  is 
better  than  a  mob  of  tyrants;  if  worst  comes  to  worst,  a 
monarchy  gives  uS;  fewer  heads  to  be  cut  off.  A  monarchy 
may  be  better  than  a  reptiblic,  unless  the  average  voter  is 

10 


By  William  E.  Barton,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


more  intelligeiit,  righteous  and  unselfish  than  the  average 
king. 

A  republic  is  a  most  unsafe  form  of  government  for  any 
but  an  intelligent  and  righteous  people.  If  the  American 
people  become  so  immersed  in  their  o^vn  private  enterprises 
that  they  pay  no  heed  to  the  public  welfare;  if  they  suffer 
the  national  spirit  to  decay  while  they  madly  pursue  their 
mercenary  aims;  if  the  motto  on  our  coins  conies  to  mean 
"In  Grod  we  trust  because  we  cannot  trust  each  other,"  then 
democracy  as  Ave  know  it  in  America  will  prove  to  be  the 
last  forlorn  hope  of  a  Avorld  long  dominated  by  tyranny,  and 
that  hope  doomed  to  hopeless  disappointnient. 

We  have  made  the  mistake  of  assuming  that  if  we  could 
get  better  governmental  machinery  it  would  run  itself.  We 
have  asSfUmed  that  the  panacea  for  all  our  ills  lay  in  con- 
stitutional amendments,  statutes  enacted  by  our  leigsla- 
tures,  or  decisions  handed  down  by  our  supreme  courts.  On 
the  contrary,  there  is  no  remedy  for  the  evils  that  threaten 
a  people  except  intelligence  and  righteousness  incorporated 
in  the  life  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people.  If  that  spirit  is 
true,  then  there  will  be  righteous  legislation  and  intelligent 
enforcement  of  the  laws ;  but  if  that  spirit  be  not  there,  then 
we  may  break  down  the  printing  presses  printing  the  output 
of  our  legislative  assemblies,  and  it  will  be  sounding  brass 
and  a  tinkling  cymbal. 

So  many  and  so  appalling  are  the  evils  that  threaten  a 
republican  form  of  government,  we  may  not  wonder  that 
people  often  despair  of  it.  But  there  is  no  other  refuge. 
We  may  not  escape  by  jumping  out  of  the  frying-pan  of 
democracy  into  the  fire  of  despotism.  So  long  as  the  com- 
mon men  can  fire  a  gun  or  hurl  a  bomb,  there  is  no  safety 
for  government  that  does  not  represent  the  intelligence  and 
will  of  a  righteous  people. 

A  constitutional  monarchy  is  under  less  obligation  than 
a  republic  to  produce  a  leadership  that  is  great  in  its  own 
personality.  A  monarchy  can  idealize  a  conmionplace  man 
and  know  that  he  is  commonplace  and  not  feel  at  all  humili- 
ated by  the  process.  In  a  recent  essay,  Dean  Inge  tells 
America  that  America  need  not  be  surprised  that  the  Eng- 
lish are  able  to  idealize  a  very  commonplace  man;  he  says 
that  it  is  just  as  easy  as  it  is  to  idealize  a  piece  of  striped 
bunting.    A  constitutional  monarchy  limits  the  power  of  its 


^l  UBRARY 

ONIVERSmr  OF  llUNOfS 


Ahraham  Lincoln  and  the  American  Ideal 


.kings,  and  invests  the  office  itself  with  a  sort  of  sanctity 
which  makes  it  comparatively  unimportant  that  the  occu- 
pant of  the  throne  should  himself  be  great  in  the  qualities 
that  make  for  leadership.  If  the  king  is  great  and  good,  so 
much  the  better;  but  if  he  is  not,  still  there  is  respect  for 
the  throne  that  saves  its  occupant  from  excess  of  scorn. 
But  a  republic  must  raise  up  great  leaders.  The  office  of 
President  is  compassed  about  with  insufficient  glory  to  save 
an  unworthy  occupant  from  contempt;  indeed,  it  has  too 
little  glory  to  insure  that  a  worthy  President  shall  always 
be  known  as  such  and  receive  the  honor  Avhich  is  his  due. 
An  American  President,  if  a  really  capable  man,  is  likely  to 
raise  up  sufficient  opposition  to  make  his  presidency  not 
wholly  a  joy,  but  if  he  is  a  great  man  he  has  an  opportunity 
to  test  out  the  quality  of  his  greatness.  He  must  possess 
two  kinds  of  leadership,  and  Lincoln  possessed  them  both. 
He  must  be  able  to  see  farther  and  clearer  than  the  people, 
and  he  must  not  lose  his  touch  with  the  people.  Lincoln 
was  great  in  his  combination  of  these  two  qualities  of  lead- 
ership. 

But  a  republic  must  recognize  its  great  leaders.  It  is  not 
always  certain  that  recognition  will  be  the  result  of  popu- 
lar elections.  Conspicuous  candidates  often  kill  each  other 
off,  and  conA^entions  vote  for  compromise  candidates.  Lin- 
coln was  such  a  compromise.  But  that  time,  at  least,  the 
convention  and  the  country  found,  even  if  by  accident,  the 
truly  greatest  man.  We  cannot  always  depend  upon  such 
accidents.  A  republic  should  have  certain  methods  of  the 
people,  and  should  set  them  on  high.  In  Lincoln's  case,  the 
judgment  of  the  people  did  not  fail.  They  believed  in  Lin- 
coln, and  he  believed  in  them. 

A  democracy  uninspired  and  unguided  is  not  a  form  of 
government  to  be  desired.  It  is  certain  to  be  exploited  by 
the  boss,  and  likely  to  be  delivered  over  eventually  to  the 
tyrant. 

When,  in  1804,  Beethoven  composed  his  symphony, 
"Eroica,"  he  dedicated  it  to  the  man  who  then  seemed  to  be 
tlie  incarnation  of  those  republican  ideals  which  at  that 
time  possessed  so  many  of  the  poets  and  musicians  of 
Europe.  There  was  a  man  then  risen  to  fame  who  had  come 
up  from  the  common  people,  and  who  seemed  to  be  destined 

12 


By  William  E.  Barton,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


by  Providence  to  deliver  mankind  from  tlie  despotism  of 
kings.  That  man  was  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  tlie  champion 
of  liberty,  the  ideal  of  republican  rule.  But  in  May  of  that 
very  year,  Napoleon,  already  in  reality  an  absolute  ruler, 
assumed  the  title  of  emperor,  and  Beethoven  tore  away  his 
title  page  and  the  symphony  went  forth  undedicated.  In- 
deed, that  symphony  might  stand  with  Schubert's  as  an 
"unfinished  symphony,"  because  Beethoven  never  found  the 
man  to  whom  this  heroic  composition  might  be  dedicated. 
We  are  painfully  reminded  that  a  democratic  movement  may 
raise  up  leaders,  and  the  leaders  themselves  may  betray  the 
spirit  that  brought  them  into  power.  But  if  such  a  composi- 
tion had  been  written  in  honor  of  Lincoln,  it  would  never 
have  needed  to  be  altered.  He  reminds  us  that  a  republic 
may  raise  up  a  great  leader,  may  recognize  his  leadership 
and  raise  him  to  power,  and  expect  him  to  remain  loyal  to 
the  principles  that  made  him  great,  and  never  betray  the 
people.    Abraham  Lincoln  kept  faith  with  the  people. 

Thus  it  is  that  Lincoln  stands  forth  as  the  incarnation  of 
loyalty  to  the  ideal  of  America.  His  was  the  standard  of 
personal  honor,  his  was  the  confidence  in  America  and  her 
principles  of  government,  which  certify  to  us  and  to  the 
world  the  righteousness  of  the  rule  of  the  people. 

Now  this,  our  text,  reminds  us  is  no  new  discovery.  The 
prophet  Jeremiah  believed  in  these  principles.  "The  cap- 
tains and  the  kings"  departed  in  his  day,  one  into  Egypt  and 
another  into  Babylon.  The  temple  fell  and  the  priesthood 
was  violently  dispossessed,  but  he  believed  that  the  people 
w^ere  capable  of  developing  the  capacity  of  self-government; 
and  America  believes  that  Jeremiah  w^as  right;  and  one 
proof  of  their  belief  is  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  a  republic.  It  is  a  reign  in  which 
God's  guidance  is  manifest  through  the  intelligence  and  the 
honesty  and  the  unselfishness  and  the  right-mindedness  of 
the  people.  There  is  no  certainty  of  right  in  majorities. 
There  is  no  safety  in  mere  numbers.  The  rule  of  the  people 
can  be  made  no  better  than  the  intelligence  and  righteous- 
ness of  the  people.  There  is  no  possibility  of  perfecting 
political  machinery  or  passing  such  excellent  laws  as  to 
make  the  Avorld  safe  for  democracy  or  democracy  safe  for 
the  world.    There  is  only  one  way  to  insure  that  government 


13 


Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  American  Ideal 

of,  for  and  by  the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth, 
and  that  is  to  make  it  not  only  free  but  intelligent ;  not  also 
popular  but  righteous.  The  only  way  to  do  that  is  to  edu- 
cate and  elevate  the  moral  standards  of  the  whole  people. 

This  is  precisely  what  Jeremiah  believed.  It  is  what 
Lincoln  believed.    It  is  what  the  world  is  coming  to  believe. 

Lincoln  returned  to  political  life  in  1854  under  the  power- 
ful incentive  of  moral  compulsion.  He  entered  upon  his 
race  for  the  Senate  against  Stephen  A.  Douglas  in  1858, 
declaring  that  a  house  divided  against  itself  could  not  stand ; 
that  America  must  choose  whether  she  was  to  be  all  slave 
or  all  free.  He  may  go  further.  A  nation  divided  against 
itself,  into  ignorant  and  educated,  righteous  and  unright- 
eous, cannot  stand.  We  must  educate  and  elevate  all  our 
people  and  make  the  rule  of  the  people  something  else  than 
the  rule  of  the  mob. 

A  world  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  It  cannot 
endure  half  armed  and  half  unarmed,  half  peaceable  and 
half  militaristic.  It  cannot  endure  with  one  half  cherishing 
hatred  and  contempt  and  suspicion  against  the  other  half. 
The  world  must  learn  a  basis  of  self-government  in  right- 
eousness. The  world  is  just  beginning  to  believe  this;  and 
that  is  one  reason  why,  on  thi  sday,  the  name  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  being  honored  in  the  pulpits  of  the  world,  and 
tomorrow  will  be  honored  in  legislative  halls  and  at  ban- 
quet tables  and  in  meetings  for  international  good  will,  not 
in  America  only,  but  throughout  the  earth. 

America  makes  high  profession  of  faith  when  she  claims 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  the  norm  and  exponent  of  her  national 
life.  The  manhood  of  a  nation  that  claims  Lincoln  should 
be  clean,  upright,  honest,  patriotic,  sympathetic,  magnani- 
mous, noble.  Can  America  claim  that  for  her  manhood? 
It  is  her  clear  duty  and  her  high  privilege  to  aspire  that 
this  shall  be  true.  She  has  a  right  to  tell  to  her  youth  the 
story  of  Lincoln,  and  to  teach  her  young  manhood  to  emu- 
late his  simple  virtues.  She  has  a  right  to  hang  his  portrait 
on  the  walls  of  her  legislative  halls  and  her  courts  of  jus- 
tice. She  has  a  right  to  name  him  in  her  intercourse  with 
other  nations.    She  has  a  right  to  define  her  own  prijiciples 

14 


By  William  E.  Barton,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


in  terms  of  liis  integrity  and  transparent  righteousness. 
America  that  produced  Abraham  Lincoln  can  beget  other 
sons  in  his  likeness  and  train  them  up  in  his  spirit.  It  will 
be  a  proud  day  for  our  country  when  other  nations  think  of 
him,  and  believe  that  Americans  are  like  him  and  that 
America  is  filled  with  his  spirit.  In  that  great  day  we  can 
proudly  say  to  the  world,  "This  is  America,  the  land  of 
Lincoln.' 


15 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 
973.7L63GB28AB  cOOl 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  AND  THE  AMERICAN  IDEAL  C 


3  0112 


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